‘The Traitors’ Season 3: Top 5 Moments From Episode 8 We Can’t Stop Talking About

“The Traitors” Season 3 has proved to be as increasingly dramatic as host Alan Cumming’s outfits are fabulous, and Episode 8 continued to raise tensions as the number of players dwindled. Notably, the Faithfuls start the episode on a high, as they voted out Traitorous Boston Rob the night before, though this quickly sends them scrambling to find new Traitor leads.

The remaining players at the start of the episode are:

• Ivar
• Tom
• Danielle – Traitor
• Britney
• Sam
• Ciara
• Dylan
• Carolyn – Traitor
• Chrishell
• Gabby
• Dolores

The episode comes off of the previous episode’s revelation that a list of players shortlisted for murder after losing the previous challenge – Gabby, Tom, Carolyn (though she’s a Traitor, so we know she’s safe), Chrishell, Dylan, and Dolores – will, for the first time, be killed face-to-face by the Traitors. The players not killed were greeted by Alan, in stunning designer boots (according to Tom).

Chrishell’s Murder

At the start of the episode, it is revealed that Chrishell was murdered the night before. With the unique privilege of seeing who the Traitors are, she asks, “Can I ask you guys why you chose me?” to which Carolyn responds, “Girl, you were too faithful, you would have never been banished.” Chrishell, clearly heartbroken, states in her confessional that she was not surprised to see Danielle but was “shocked” to see Carolyn. As the episode continues and people whisper Danielle’s name, it seems like this a sentiment most Faithfuls share at this point in the game.

Chrishell’s loss is mourned by most. Gabby says that she feels like she has lost a friend. Whereas Tom, who Chrishell had been a vocal hater of, expresses joy and satisfaction at her departure.

Danielle And Britney’s Rekindled Friendship

Danielle and Britney rekindled their past friendship in the previous episode, and it continues to grow this week. It is so strong, in fact, that despite wanting to “start fresh” with Carolyn, Danielle states that she would keep knowledge of who wins a Shield in this episode’s challenge to herself if it means protecting Britney. This newfound alliance proves to be a point of suspicion as, after Ciara, both women are the most whispered about around the castle. It is also keeping Carolyn’s guard up, as she wishes for Britney’s banishment so that Danielle would be more loyal to her in the event of her departure.

Tom Sandoval’s “Musical Passion”

This episode’s game is a particularly chilling crossover between “Annabelle” and “Cabin in the Woods” – with a musical twist. Half of the players are at a run-down cabin – yes, in the woods – full of dolls that sing backwards nursery rhymes. Their job is to sing the rhymes on the phone to the second group back at the castle, so that they can reverse the sounds and figure out the name of the nursery rhyme. If they correctly guess the name, they receive some prize money for the pot.

While most of the cabin team focuses on trying to find a shield in one of the dolls, Tom gets particularly into singing the nursery rhymes. While he cites himself being the only musically inclined player, the other players disagree, laughing with horror at his musical renditions. Fortunately for us, Tom making himself look insane continues to be excellent television.

At the end of the challenge, Ciara wins the only shield, which was buried in a discarded Teddy Bear. The players decide to keep this to themselves.

Ciara’s Strong Final Impression

Ciara puts up a strong fight at the roundtable, deftly passing suspicion onto Danielle as Jeremy’s original suspect, but eventually everyone casts their vote for her. It is partially her bravery around vocalizing her hatred for the Traitors after the coffin-incident and, ultimately, her advocacy in the previous episode for Boston Rob’s innocence that paved the way for her early exit. In a heartwarming moment, she credits her bravery and outspokenness to the strength of her mom.

Ciara has one of the best moments in the episode during the roundtable when Tom has a bit of a Freudian slip. When arguing that the remaining Traitors must be women, Tom says that women are known to be better cheaters than men. He immediately rolls it back claiming to have meant to say “Traitors” instead of “cheaters”, and asserts that guys are more likely to cheat, to which Ciara responds to the now-infamous cheater, “Oh, we know.”

While Ciara was unanimously voted out, suspicion is still strongly cast on Britney and some players are starting to doubt Danielle’s “theatrics”. Danielle has a tight argument at the roundtable though, saying that she voted for Traitor Boston Rob twice and that all of her closest friends have been killed off. Carolyn also somehow avoided further suspicion cast upon her after she very narrowly “passed” Sam’s test at breakfast to weed out Traitors. That’s all to say, ring is slowly closing in around the Traitors and time will tell if they will continue to be able to evade the doubts that are starting to be whispered about them.

To Murder Or Not To Murder And Instead Recruit A New Traitor?

At the end of the episode, Alan reveals to the Traitors that they have a choice – to murder someone as usual, or to recruit a new Traitor.

Tensions are still high between Danielle and Carolyn going into this episode’s murder. Danielle expresses that she wants to split the prize money with Carolyn and truthfully tells her that Ciara had the shield, but Carolyn still refuses to trust her. Danielle argues that they need a female traitor to be voted out to cast suspicion off them, but when Danielle puts Britney’s name up for being a new Traitor, Carolyn says “HECK NO.” She, perhaps fairly, argues that they would just team up against her.

This tension leaves us with a very juicy cliff-hanger for next week’s episode. Will they recruit someone new for their traitorous turret or will there be another murder? Perhaps even juicier, will Carolyn and Danielle be able to settle their differences in the next episode to make a smart next move?

New episodes of “The Traitors” stream Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT on Peacock.